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1.1.2-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Book 1: Fantine, Ch.2: Monsieur Myriel Becomes Monsignor Bienvenue In Which BUDGETS ARE FASCINATING. Really. This chapter is honestly just a couple a lists of the Bishop’s household expenses, some talk about the disposition of the local hospital, and a little bit of architecture and party planning. So how does it give me SO MANY questions?!? The practical: What’s a “livre”? Obviously, money, but how much is it really worth? What sort of services would the hospital have provided? Would it just have been a place to go and get out of the weather while people waited to live or die? A sort of quarantine home? Were the bishop and his household right next door to a mansion of skilled doctors or basic comforters? The history of medical institutions fascinates and terrifies me, and I want to know! Knowing as little as I do about 19th century France, though, I can still boggle about HOW MUCH money the Bishop is supposed to have for its personal expenses. Five thousand francs, plus housing provided, is…well, kind of A LOT?!? Much later we’re told a character with a yearly income of about three thousand has a very large allowance, and that’s living in Paris, where expenses are sure to be higher, and with all the inflation that time brings. So five thousand + massive estate seems pretty hefty! And of course for the Bishop this money is coming from…what, church taxes? Oh! And he’s eligible for a carriage allowance. No wonder the secular official is ready to rant on about corrupt, greedy church officials! Of course Bishop Bienvenue is having none of that, and we see HOW he’s having none of that in exacting detail. I’ll leave the general analysis of expenses to those people around here who actually know their history; I’d love any information on those charities, though! Things I’m enjoying/thinking about a lot with this chapter: 1. The relationship between the Bishop and Magloire. She is in some ways the one really paying for his charity; she’s the one who has to make ends meet on the limited income he allows, and her own comfort in the household is surely affected. She urges him to take more for himself, she hopes he’ll take care of himself, but she doesn’t try to alter the budget or find another household. Snarky loyalty is a major soft spot for me, and I love Magloire a lot by the end of this chapter. 2. The money for prison reform, bail, and other justice-system problems: 1900 livres. I’ve mentioned before that the Bishop doesn’t help Valjean out of nowhere, on a whim, and here it is again— the legal system and its victims are an early interest of the Bishop’s, Not just supporting the individuals there, or the people leaving, but actual reform (or “improvement” depending on the translator) . That’s a much harder problem to even acknowledge, much less address, but there’s the Bishop, fully engaged with it. 3. The lovely painful line: “There is always more misery at the lower end than humanity at the top” (Denny has it as ” misery in the depths/ compassion in the heights” which I do not think is nearly as effective— the one calls for basic human spirit, the other a specific virtue). OUCH. And again, a total reflection on most of the novel. Digression? What digression? Tomorrow: Good Bishop- Difficult Diocese, or Let’s Get Explicit With Our Christ Analogies! NOTE TO ALL: I will NOT be responding to/reblogging every post from here on in, only the ones where I have something to add or think someone else can embellish well. But don’t let me stop you from commenting! I’ll still honestly probably hit most of the posts, anyway, and if I don’t have a comment another Bricker may! Commentary Alasse-irena You had thoughts about the budget. I am so impressed. I was just like, budget budget budget, money yes numbers yes, the bishop is doing good charity this is good. So glad someone thought about this for me. What you say about Magloire is excellent. She and Baptistine are the people who makes sure that Myriel, in spite of his habit of giving everything he owns away, survives, and still has sufficient money to feed guests when they come around (which I’m sure important guests often do, to a bishop). I actually just want stories about Magloire and Baptistine being friends now. That would be great. Laissezferre I really have no idea about French money conversion so I’m looking forward to the answers from our historians! What caught me eye, though, is how the Bishop distinguishes between foundlings and orphans. Won’t they be housed in the same institution? As for the uses of the hospital, since Digne is in the mountainous region, I’m guessing there won’t be a lot of trained doctors to tend to the sick. Instead, there would be nuns similar to Sister Simplice. Speaking of hospital, I just love how Hugo makes a stark difference between the physical appearance of the episcopal palace and the hospital. There’s a whole paragraph dedicated to the palace’s history and grandeur, followed by one, simple sentence about the hospital. It effectively highlights the irony of things and reminds me of a similar quote on the cost of cannon fodder and how the people are dying. Hapgood uses the line, “there is always more wretchedness below than there is brotherhood above,” so imo FMA wins this round for clarity. Maedhrys I love your reflections on the budget! If you look at it again, the bishop is said to have both “fifteen thousand francs” and “fifteen thousand livres” for his expenses. Livre is an old name for franc; its use shows the characters’ age. I also love that line. The French is il y a toujours encore plus de misère en bas que de fraternité en haut—“there is always more misery below than brotherhood above.” I like the translation “humanity,” but it’d be interesting to note whether anyone actually uses the translation “brotherhood” or “fraternity,” with the early revolutionary implications of the word. (Read the first two chapters in French just now. We’ll see if it lasts.) Gascon-en-exile Based on some of the other reblogs I don’t think I’ll have to bring up his honorifics here after all, though it’s a cute bit of humor toward the end where Myriel claims “Bienvenu” corrige (corrects, counterbalances) “Monseigneur.” Deep as I am into Victorian studies at the moment, Magloire’s financial woes over housekeeping, though they initially come across as a petty foil to the bishop’s magnanimity, are easier to understand. She’s the one who has to make what little remains suffice for their personal needs, after all. This chapter also dismantles the idea of conspicuous consumption in a far gentler manner than that of the senator griping about carriage expenses. It was a philosophy practiced by the Second Estate to which Myriel formerly belonged as well as by various other wealthy classes then and since, with the idea that one’s level of wealth should be readily visible in one’s lifestyle. Of course Magloire and others like are believe Myriel needs to live in a palace, eat lavishly, entertain illustrious individuals in his residence (as with the banquet given by the bishop who built the palace), and keep a carriage for his visits around the diocese. However, he takes that money and reappropriates it toward charitable work (as opposed to not having it as all, as the anticlerical senator would have it), which anticipates Valjean and renders Myriel ever more saintly. As many other have pointed out, foreshadowing abounds in these early chapters. With all this discussion of the distribution of wealth I’d imagine it would be easy to do a Marxist interpretation of the bishop, because he seems intent on displaying the kind of simple communism (though that word is so loaded now, almost beyond recognition) practiced by the first Christian communities, especially with “l’évêque le percevait sur les riches avec d’autant plus d’âpreté qu’il le donnait aux pauvres" ("the bishop collected them from church services from the rich with as much fierceness/rigor as he gave them to the poor"). Even better, his charity comes from his considerable allowance as a clergyman, so there’s a contrast with the early Church and the later, much more materialistic institution. Still saving character discussions for later, since these posts would go on forever otherwise. Sarah1281 I always wonder what happens to the hospital after the bishop dies. I can’t imagine the new bishop being willing to live in the cramped former-hospital quarters since Myriel is such an outlier and doesn’t even have a natural successor. It would be rather awkward for the new bishop to ask for his palace back from those sick people but he would probably do it to get to live in the proper bishop residence. Is there ever a new hospital built? Or do things go back to the state that they were in before the bishop made his arrangements? I sort of imagine that Digne after the bishop dies resembles M-sur-M after Valjean leaves it accept maybe less extreme because it was in better shape to begin with and it suffers from losing individual acts of charity which (while very helpful and life-saving to many) are not quite as central as becoming the town’s economy. Kcrabb88'' Wow, try number two at posting, my computer apparently hates me tonight! Anyhow, the Bishop and his love of budgeting. And also of awesomely giving most of what he has to the poor. I was really struck by something Pilfering Apples said in the commentary she left on my reblog last night, about the idea of the Bishop’s choices and him “arm wrestling” with destiny (that was a great image!) and I think here in this second chapter we see the Bishop taking his original choice and expounding upon it; not only was he going to be a bishop but he was going to be a bishop for a reason; to make a solid difference in the world. His wife died by chance, but he made the choice to become a bishop and even better yet, a bishop who truly loved the people he served. More on the topic of choice, I think that the Bishop choosing to give away most of his money to the poor and less fortunate, to the sick and to the prisoners, in turns gives them a better chance to make choices in their lives. Hugo emphasizes how very trapped the lower classes are because they can’t find a way out of the lives they’re born into, how the sick are trapped in illness because they can’t afford a doctor, and so on. But by assisting them with all the money he can, the Bishop, helps, at least in some way, to better their situation, and perhaps even better it to the point where they can possibly have the choice or the opportunity to change their lives. Perhaps not even in a huge way, but in SOME way. I love the idea of Bishop Myriel’s choices giving other people the real change to make their own choices. He’s arm wrestling the destiny of others to give them the strength to wrestle their own destiny, to create it, and to make their own choices that mix with the chance that inevitably happens to anyone. As other people have mentioned, the specific mention of the Bishop giving a pretty large sum of money to prisoners is so telling, and emphasizes how important it is to him, laying the pathway for him helping Valjean in a few chapters. In short, Bishop Myriel is awesome. …I didn’t know I could write so much about a chapter concerning the Bishop’s budget. '''Caramarthenfan At this point, “livre” and “franc” were interchangeable, although the currency was officially called the “franc” (slightly earlier, when both denominations were still in use, a franc was worth slightly more than a livre). I agree that the budget is super-interesting, and Myriel is pretty much the best gentle, saintly troll ever. BUT. I have really conflicted feelings about him, because of the way his approach to charity results in not just his own voluntary deprivation, but that of his household—who accept, and are praised by the narrator for it—but who do not choose their deprivation. I’m with kingedmundsroyalmurder on sympathy for Mme. Magloire and Mlle. Baptistine, who have to uncomplainingly make do. Yes, saintly Mlle. Baptistine won’t complain, but I do kind of feel like Myriel is screwing over his dependents somewhat—especially since he’s not putting by anything for them to live on should he die first (Mlle. Baptistine’s 500 francs sounds like it would be pretty tight for two people given that they would no longer have a residence provided by the Church). I wish he would allow a little more for them, even if he does not want it for himself. And yes, this is period-appropriate for Hugo to present as a virtue for the women, but there are countless examples of women of the period who asserted themselves—it’s not categorically unrealistic for women to do so—and Hugo’s female characters are complex and interesting enough that it frustrates me when the narrative voice does its damndest to squash all agency out of them. If Hugo can be sympathetic to the poor, why can he not be a little more sympathetic to the two old women who are living on a diet that sounds like a recipe for malnourishment, assuming they’re eating what the Bishop eats (“With that exception, his ordinary diet consisted only of vegetables boiled in water, and oil soup.” — skipping ahead a few chapters, sorry!), but not by their own choice. Charity at the expense of people who socially can’t really object—and who personally won’t—rubs me the wrong way a little.